California’s GO-Biz Site Bedeviled By Errors and Omissions
According to the website, the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) was created ”to serve as California’s single point of contact for economic development and job creation efforts”. While the site does provide some very basic level of information, it is dangerously incomplete and riddled with manifest errors. No advice would be better than bad advice. “It Sounds Read more...
U.S. Supreme Court Holds That State Courts Must Not Assume The Arbitrator’s Role By Declaring Non-Compete Agreements Null And Void
A short per curiam opinion issued yesterday by the United States Supreme Court concerning an employment dispute in Oklahoma is likely to result in consternation in California. Nitro-Lift Technologies, L.L.C. v. Howard, 568 U.S. ___ (2012) involved a dispute between an employer and two of its former employees. The employees had signed confidentiality and noncompetition agreements that included arbitration clauses. When the Read more...
California’s Hostility To Non-Compete Agreements Does Not Vitiate Forum Selection Clause
In numerous posts, I’ve discussed California’s policy against covenants not to compete as mandated by Business & Professions Code Section 16600. From a different, more positive perspective, California could be characterized as having a strong policy in favor of employee mobility. However Section 16600 may be characterized, it cannot be gainsaid that it’s very tough to get a California court to enforce a Read more...
Classifying A Coterie Of Covenants
Yesterday, I wrote about Judge Lucy Koh’s decision in SriCom, Inc. v. eBisLogic, Inc., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131082 (N.D. Cal., Sept. 13, 2012) concerning the enforceability of a no-hire agreement. Judge Koh mentions an earlier ruling by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel that describes five categories of covenants not to compete, Thomas Weisel Ptnrs. LLC v. BNP Paribas, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS Read more...
Court Says “No Way” To No-Hire
California is known for its hostility to covenants not to compete. Legal antipathy to these kind of agreements didn’t start here, however. According to some, it began in Roman times. Eugene McQuillen, Validity of Contracts in Restraint of Trade, The Am. L. Reg. 219 (April 1885). The Dyer’s case, (1414) 2 Hen. V, fol. 5, pl. 26, is perhaps the earliest common Read more...
No Surprises Here – California Court Won’t Enforce Non-Compete
Employers like covenants not to compete; California doesn’t. Anyone who doubts these two propositions should read the opinion issued last Friday by the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Fillpoint, LLC v. Maas, 2012 Cal. App. LEXIS 914 (Aug. 24, 2012). The facts of the case are relatively straightforward. When Michael Maas sold his stock in a corporation, he signed a three-year covenant Read more...
California Employers And Employees May Soon Be Able To Choose Any Forum/Law/Venue They Want So Long As It’s California
Recess Is Almost Over The California legislature is in recess until August 15 at noon (J.R. 51(a)(3)). The last day for any bill to be passed this year will be September 9 (J.R. 61(a)(13). This means that many bills will soon begin their final sprint to the Governor’s desk. A Bill To Watch One bill to watch is AB 267. Read more...
TRO Issued Enjoining Breach Of Non-Compete Agreement Clauses
California Business and Professions Code Section 16600 provides that “every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void.” As discussed in this legal alert, the California Supreme Court in Edwards v. Arthur Andersen, 44 Cal. 4th 937 (2008), shut the legal door on non-competition agreements that do not fit Read more...
